John Sheardown

John Sheardown, who has died aged 88, played a starring role in what became
known as the “Canadian Caper”, when a group of six American diplomats, who
had managed to avoid capture when militants stormed the US Embassy compound
in Tehran during the Iranian revolution in 1979, were smuggled out of the
country in an elaborate subterfuge.

John SheardownPhoto: AP

5:44PM GMT 06 Jan 2013

The story inspired Ben Affleck’s $44 million hit movie Argo, released last year to rave reviews. But the Hollywood version of events was not appreciated either by the Canadians, who felt their role had been downplayed, or by British and New Zealand diplomats who felt they had been traduced.

Islamic militants invaded the US embassy in Tehran on November 4 1979, taking 52 American staff hostage. Held captive for 444 days, they were abused, blindfolded and subjected to mock executions. But, unbeknown to the Iranians, six Americans had managed to escape.

The consular building, at the other side of the compound from the embassy, had been spared the brunt of the assault and several staff were able to make their way out of the building on to a deserted street. Led by the head of the consulate, Bob Anders, five of them, three men and two women, went on the run. They were later joined by a sixth escapee, the agricultural attaché, Henry Lee Schatz.

Their orders were to seek help at the British embassy, but they found a huge group of protesters blocking their path. For the next six days (aided by a Thai cook), they lived on their wits, moving from house to house to avoid being found by the armed mobs roaming the city, including spending one night at the British embassy summer compound in northern Tehran.

As it became clear the crisis would not end quickly, Anders contacted Sheardown, an old friend of his then working as an immigration officer at the Canadian consulate, to ask for his help. “Why didn’t you call sooner?” Sheardown replied.

At enormous personal risk, Sheardown and the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor gave the American diplomats sanctuary in their own private residences. The Taylors took two members of the group, while the other four stayed with Sheardown and his wife, Zena.

“We were under surveillance,” Sheardown recalled in an interview. “We had tanks at one end of the street and a fellow that walked up and down. They were always suspicious.” During the two months they housed the Americans, the Sheardowns had to think of ingenious ways not to arouse suspicion. To disguise the need for extra food, they bought groceries at different shops, while Sheardown disposed of rubbish on the way to work to camouflage the amount of refuse they were generating.

The group remained in hiding for 79 days as secret talks began about how they could be smuggled out of the country. These were initiated by the Canadians who arranged for the six to be issued with Canadian passports with forged Iranian visas prepared by the CIA, so that they could be spirited out of the country on an international flight.

The CIA enlisted its disguise and exfiltration expert, Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck in the film), to provide a cover story. Working closely with the Canadians, Mendez concocted an elaborate plot in which the six Americans would pose as a Hollywood crew looking for locations for a projected sci-fi film called Argo (not Argo as in Argonauts, Mendez explained, but Argo as in “Argo f--- yourself”) . To add to the authenticity, Mendez established a fake Hollywood film studio, placed display ads about the production in Variety magazine and even threw a launch party.

As the weeks passed, the Americans rehearsed their storylines, while Taylor made efforts to fly out non-essential Canadian personnel in case of discovery. On January 28 1980 the group made their way to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, all playing their parts, the normally conservative Anders in a blue silk shirt two sizes too small, unbuttoned to reveal a hairy chest and gold medallion, “strutting around with the chutzpah of a Wilshire Boulevard stud” by Mendez’s account.

The group boarded a Swissair flight to Zurich without mishap. Sheardown and Taylor followed on the next flight out.

When Argo was released last year, there were complaints that Affleck had downplayed the Canadian involvement. Indeed Sheardown, who played such a vital role, was removed from the plot entirely. British and New Zealand diplomats were reported to be even more annoyed by the claim in the film that the six diplomats had fetched up with the Canadians after “Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away.”

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph Anders described the claims as “absolutely untrue” recalling that the British in particular had given the group shelter and helped them to move around to different places. “If the Iranians were going to start looking for people they would probably look to the British,” he explained. “So it was too risky to stay and we moved on. They put their lives on the line for us.”

John Vernon Sheardown was born in Sandwich, Ontario, on October 11 1924 and later moved to Ottawa. After leaving school he joined the Canadian Air Force and served in Europe during the Second World War. On one occasion he broke both legs after jumping from a plane at low altitude on a training mission over England.

After the war, Sheardown spent several years in the Canadian Army before joining the immigration service in the early 1960s and later the foreign service.

After the triumphant conclusion of the “Canadian Caper”, Sheardown and his wife Zena, along with Ambassador Taylor and other staff, were appointed to the Order of Canada. Taylor was subsequently awarded the American Congressional Gold Medal.

Sheardown’s first marriage, to Kathleen Benson, was dissolved. In 1975 he married Zena Khan, who survives him with two sons by his first marriage. A daughter by his first marriage predeceased him.